Haiti

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Yesterday I had the most brilliant time. I've realized over the past nine months that I am a people person. I seem to get a high by just talking and interacting with people from different cultures and places. I feel like I've won a prize everytime I do that. Yesterday I met some wonderful people who all had some connection to Haiti. I learnt about the country, the poverty and the cabola dance. Apparently the cabola is sensuos dance form. It is the dance of love as they call it. The cabola music reminded me of being vaguely caribbean in nature. The language creole is so close to french so I was again very taken in by the whole thing. I met some selfless doctors who like working in third world countries. It was a refereshing experience to meet so many different kind of people in the same room.
Haiti is one of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, 80% of the population lives in abject poverty, and natural disasters frequently sweep the nation. Two-thirds of all Haitians depend on the agriculture sector, which consists mainly of small-scale subsistence farming. There are lot of self help groups that help Haitians with micro investments. So the woman of the house is taught some trade and apparently those households have lesser chance of any members developing AIDS and the children go to school.
The person who invited me over for dinner, was the most delightful raconteur. Very woodehouseian humour and the house was really beautiful. It was filled with great artifacts. My mum would have had a field day.
Ofourse another thing that struck me was that people do have a myopic view of Americans. There are a lot of liberal people who think that what their country is doing is wrong. Of course maybe I am only exposed to liberal side considering I'm in a non-bush state and also in a university. BUt then again, it's nice to know that all that you've heard may not be necessarily true. Ofcourse as always my faith in humanity is restored!

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